Guns-to-Work Laws Spread in U.S. as Business Fights NRA

by Margaret Newkirk, Bloomberg | published on December 13, 2012

Republican-dominated legislatures in at least four states are planning to consider allowing employees to bring guns to work, turning two of the party’s traditional constituencies against each other: gun-rights supporters and businesses.

The measures, backed by the National Rifle Association, would allow workers in Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina and Pennsylvania to keep the weapons locked and hidden in their cars in employee parking areas. Seventeen states have approved similar measures since 2003, according to a tally by the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence in San Francisco.

The laws extend gun rights onto property controlled by private employers, prompting opposition from companies such as FedEx Corp. (FDX) and Volkswagen AG. (VOW) The proposals are creating a dilemma for Republicans, said Robert Spitzer, chairman of the political science department at the State University of New York at Cortland.

“The gun rights movement is now colliding against traditional business interests,” Spitzer said. “It’s a direct clash between a values issue and an economic one and both of these competing forces are particularly strong within the Republican Party.”

Torn Allegiances

The conflict has torn allegiances even among legislators who consider themselves strong backers of the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment right to bear arms, as happened this year in Tennessee when the NRA, the Fairfax, Virginia-based pro-gun organization, helped defeat Republican House caucus leader Debra Maggart in a primary. Maggart, who says she is a gun-rights supporter, had opposed a workplace firearms law because of concerns that it violated business and property rights.

“I am the most pro-Second Amendment person you can meet,” Maggart said in an interview. “I had a perfect voting record with the NRA.”

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